DC Decoder gets you up to speed with this short reading guide, some highlights of Perry profiles, including Perry's undergraduate days at Texas A&M and his record as the longest serving head of the Lone Star state.

2. To get a sense of Perry before he was in the political spotlight, check out Texas Tribune’s “Texas A&M Years Launched Perry — And a Rivalry.” Perry, one of A&M’s famous “yell leaders,” was both a prolific college prankster and a shrewd political operator.

Most people know of Texas’ reputation for creating jobs — the cornerstone of Perry’s pitch that limited government, less regulation and low taxes are the tonic for what ails the nation. Yet almost half of the state’s job growth the past two years was led by education, health care and government, the sectors of the economy that will now take a hit as federal stimulus money runs out and the Legislature’s eight percent cut in state spending translates into thousands of layoffs among state workers and teachers in the coming weeks.

Also, Texas is tied with Mississippi as the nation’s leaders in minimum wage jobs. And conservatives argue that Texas can do more to lower its tax burden on businesses, which is higher than the national average and states such as California and Massachusetts that have a personal income tax.

2. Want the data behind what Perry supporters call the “Texas miracle” of job creation? The Texas Tribune has it here, including this choice bit:

Texas gained more jobs in June 2011, 32,000, and more jobs this year, 220,000, than any other state in the country. To put these numbers in perspective…. 237,000 out of the 496,000 jobs added to the national work force since June 2009 were in Texas.

3. “Dear Yankee,” Texas Monthly writes, “Eight things you ought to know before you start writing stories about Rick Perry.” This includes the fact that Perry is notGeorge W. Bush, that he’s not a weak governor, and that it’s not a big deal that Perry was once a Democrat.